On 22nd April, I appeared live on the BBC Radio 4 programme, World on the Move, reporting from the Wildfowl & Wetland Trust reserve at Caerlaverock on the Solway Firth in Dumfriesshire on the 'top geese' that the programme is following with the assistance of the WWT. There were still some 4,000 barnacle geese on site, although these too were about to set off on their migration to Spitsbergen in Svalbard, where hopefully I might be seeing them later in the year.

For the latest news on all these migrants, visit the World on the Move website.

My latest article, reviewing twenty years of wildlife conservation in the Flow Country of Caithness and Sutherland, has just appeared in the April 2008 issue of the excellent British Wildlife magazine. 

The fourth printing of Collins Scottish Wild Flowers, published by Harper-Collins, is now available in the shops (ISBN 978-0-00-727069-9; £9.99), featuring over 350 wild flowers found in Scotland (second from the right in the editions below).  I have extensively revised the Places to Visit section, updated the text on 'Responsible Access' and 'Conserving Scotland's Flora' to take account of changes introduced by the Scottish Parliament, and corrected a couple of typos in scientific names.  I think it is still one of the few introductory guides on Scottish flowers aimed at the layperson. Give it a look ~ or order it direct from Amazon (see right).

Also just published is a beautiful Dorling Kindersley book, Earth Matters (ISBN 978-1-40531-888-4; £17.99), aimed at young people from about age 9 upwards. I contributed two sections, on Tropical Forests and Mountains, and am very proud of the look and coverage that we have achieved. It is available from Amazon (see right). The biggest problem was working out how youngsters could 'Make a Difference' for the spreads of that name. For example, we all know the devastation that palm oil cultivation is causing in countries like Sumatra, but how can any of us stop that destruction by avoiding palm oil from that region, when it is used so widely in so many products??